Woman With Drawers Bojana Stojcic court is now in session (typewriter clacking) will the accused please stand you have been charged with first-degree murder cold-bloodedly killing the meaning of life death by strangulation according to the report (dings) your honor, may i approach the bench? (nodding) you see, i have been collecting shadows like dead starfish washed ashore for as long as i can remember i tried to close the door, i swear, but they shoved their way in, wrapped both hands around my neck, and squeezed told me how easy it would be, then let go (scoffs) imagine a convenience store feeling bad for getting broken into now we live side by side, my shadows and i i watch them following sunsets moving at a crawl across my walls my ceilings and my floors i would if i could (they know that) but my razor blades went blunt so we chase each other shadowed by pity and self-doubt lying how sorry we are for turning into a fastidiously selected sequence of movements and speech patterns a twisted waltz of remorse and denial choking arteries with its stalled traffic consuming only easily digestible foods and beating ourselves up over every indulgent slip-up we share a home to escape aging alone, all alone because a convenient time to see the world turned into a convenient excuse sweet turned into too salty into too fatty and spicy into too bitter each slice of joy is smeared thick with moral culpability every smile is a poison pill we lick voraciously before crushing it with teeth and letting it dissolve in stomach
77.
